If a tree falls in the woods...

For anyone what has ever been to my house you have seen that huge maple tree that was growing in the middle of the back desk. It was a nice tree that provided a lot of shade. The only problem with it was that it had out grown everything that was built around it. It was starting to destroy the deck and the supporting around it. So, a couple of weeks ago my parents came out to stay for a couple days. While they were here I decided to put my Dad to good use. I took a day off work and we cut down that big old tree. It was a huge undertaking, but with a lot of prayer, everything fell right where we wanted it.

Here is a picture of the tree the day that we bought our house. This was before we cut any of the branches back.


The next two pictures are right before we cut it.



In this picture you can see how the wood that was framed in around the tree was being pressed by the tree.


Finally, after a long stressful day the tree is down. This is only the second half. I was to worried till the last one was down to even think about taking pictures of the first half. It actually fell right where this one did, but we had already cut it up and pulled it away. Notice also how the snow has mostly melted. This made for some rather large ruts in the yard. I'm going to have fun this spring. Notice in the first picture below how close it fell to the deck. Also, the in last three pictures how the tops fell right between the play set and the bird feeder pole. We couldn't of done any better. I thank the Lord that everything went well.

18 months old

These 18 months have flown by and our little girl has grown into a full-fledged bundle of communication. My Mom says Emily is very much like me when I was her age in that I would babble some phrase, someone would say "what?" and I would repeat the exact same phrase.

These days she likes to "wash" her forks and spoons in a plastic bowl I give her on the floor and she still loves putting keys into anything pretending that she's unlocking it.

Trip to Texas 2.6.08 - 2.13.08

Emily and I had the opportunity to visit my Mom and Dad and our other Aunt's and Uncle's in Texas this past week. We had a great time visiting and was thankful for the nice weather which allowed us to enjoy the outdoors the majority of the trip. Emily found she could do a new expression as a result of the plane ride - a look of surprise.

Emily sitting on one of the many live oak trees on the property of the house where we stayed.
Emily's favorite thing to do was getting in and out of the cabinet in one of the bathrooms.


Emily had fun riding in a car just her size, but her most favorite part was pressing the "radio" button and dancing to the music.

Mommy even joined in the fun.

We would take walks in the mornings and on one of our walks we passed a house that had a horse. Emily was not too fond of him.

Lots of cactus bushes in Texas.

Emily enjoyed many things while on our trip.
She especially enjoyed the brownies we had for Aunt Clara's birthday.

Congratulations Kristen and Jose

My sister-in-law and her boyfriend Jose recently got engaged (2/2/08) and Charlie, Emily and I were able to be a part of the exciting evening. Kristen said she knew something was up when she walked in the door of her apartment and saw her friends and also Charlie holding a video camera. Here are her reactions in sequence and then a picture of the ring. Thanks Jose for allowing us to be a part of the evening.